Lesson in Futility: The playoff tickets

8:30am
Had my alarm set to wake me up. The song on the radio was inspirational 70s rock.
9:00am
Ate breakfast and read the newspaper. Matzo with Nutella, a few strawberries, kosher cottage cheese.
9:15am
Got dressed and turned on the computer. Waited to hit the Habs' site for the link.
9:20am
Matzo does bad things to your "system"
9:30am
Link is up! Clicked the link and waited. Posted on twitter: "The bracelet system worked well for me when I got the Victory Pack tickets, let's see how this online method goes..."
10:00am
Tickets start selling. Still waiting... Posted on Twitter: "Waiting in a virtual waiting room isn't as fun as waiting in Windsor courtyard... There's no Youppi to high-five with." Began wondering with Tyler@NHLDigest what a team in Saskatchewan would be called. No clue if the room was working
10:30am
Lesson one - Online virtual waiting rooms: no idea where you stand or what's left.
10:45am
Posts on the Habs forum don't look promising. People getting techy. My feelings? Bored. Only sign of life in the VWR was the "Transferring data from..." thing.
10:50am
Got annoyed by dad who was standing in my doorway in his usual annoying way. Bugged me about my paintings and if I was going to take them to my new place. "Yes, but not now," I said. "Why not?" he snapped back. Grr!
11:00am
I was told people with packages (like me with the Victory Pack) got a special pin number to access the system but I got no such thing. This made me irate...
11:10am
It worked nicely for the Bulldogs game back in December... Feeling unhappy with the VWR.
11:30am
People start posting tickets for rediculous prices on Kijiji and Craigstlist. This makes me more irate. If you buy the tickets just to sell you are a douchebag (unless you suddenly realized you wouldn't be able to attend, but then you would probably offer it to friends or forum member fans first before heading there).
12:00am
Got hungry. Decided to eat lunch. Started heating up soup... Closed the page down. Bummed out...
12:30am
Kristin tells me to try the fan pack. SUCCESS! TICKETS GET!!! Thank you Kristin!!!
12:50am
Here's on happy Habs fan with two tickets to Game 3 (Home Game 1) in the Molson Ex Zone. And I get a brick (dad already bought one, but now I have one), and a CA sweater (which my brother just bought yesterday, but now I have one too). Going to be rocking the Section 313 Row A (seats 6 and 7). Brother owes me $192.70 now. Thanks again Kristin!
1:00am
Realized I forgot about my soup and found out I had boiled it into oblivion. No damage to the kitchen or stove. No one else is home so I have time to clean up the evidence, but...I GOT PLAYOFF TICKETS!

Yup: Turnovers 1, Panthers 5

I'm not even going to look at the forum/gazette comments because I'm sure they're all the same predictable slag of incompetence I hear after every loss. I'm betting there's a call for the head of Carbo or Gainey and a trade of the entire team for something shiny. Seriously, I'm sick of hearing "but Price gave up 5 goals" when what the hell do you want him to do when he's playing man alone as both defense and goalie? What about the pylons standing around in front of him watching the puck go by or handing the puck to every opposing player for a glorious scoring opportunity? At least tonight none of the guys put the puck in their own net. They just assisted instead. And what about the forwards unable to cash in where the other guys are perfectly able to cash in no matter what? Turnovers. Sloppy blueline. No finish. That's what lost the game. Not Price. (It sounds like the 2nd round playoffs eh)? If the guys were able to finish, he'd have 5 assist tonight. He gave them every opportunity to do something, considering his defensemen were unable to make a good outlet pass so he took it upon himself to do it while the Panthers were changing. He made every save he could until the Panthers broke down the door kicking, but you could have Brodeur in nets for all anyone cares and they still would have scored with the wide open ice full of options. He even made a save with a guy holding his head, to no whistle of goalie interference. And when you play defense and block a shot, BLOCK THE SHOT! Don't let it rebound out to some guy with a wide open net because you've stood there blocking the shot but also screened your goalie so he has no idea it's gone off to Bouwmeester. If he doesn't see the puck, he won't stop it.

I think his angry whipping of the puck in the 3rd period after saving the 5th turnover in the course of a minute said it all. And if he weren't in nets it would have been 5-0 Panthers in the first ten minutes of play.

Maybe the score would be more than 1 if he could play forward too. He's got a mean wrist shot.

This team is lucky they have him. How about giving him some wins?

The sad thing is the game started off really good and then all those missed opportunities just bit them in the arse. Will the Habs sweep anyone this season?

One thing to note, Sergei must have been going crazy watching his perfect setups go to waste... But with Begin tipping pucks wide or Plekanec back to his working zombie ways, there's nothing he's going to accomplish there. And never scratch Patches again, please. Kovy was seriously missing him. (Or at least put Sergei with him as no one else will pass him the puck while he's waiting there in position in front of the net). Then again, it's the magical mystery lineups. I'm sure we'll see something new on Saturday when the Kings roll into town. At least the boys will be back home.

Looking at the schedule, it's going to be a long hard month coming up, folks. Send all good mojo to the boys in the CH.

Who else:
- Yay Turks! Stars beat the Red Wings 4-2. Stop being shocked but that's the 4th loss in a row for the Wings, and they've given up 19 goals. It's also Turks' first regular season win at the Joe. Now he's 1-8-2 in that building.
- Islanders won 5-4 against Atlanta. It was 4-0 Islanders from the first period, the rest of the scoring came in the 3rd.
- Devils beat Bahston 4-3 in OT. Whatevs.
- Ottawa beat the Blues 3-1. I guess that's cool.
- It's currently 4-3 Toronto against Colorado. Is Raycroft in nets?
- TGIF tomorrow.

How to Make a Decision

Rodin's Thinker could probably decide this quicker
Decisions are tough to make, but sometimes a little outside influence can give a helping hand. These things are like "signs"; an other-worldy power that seems to turn a decision in a direction too coincidental to not follow through. Let's see some examples:

1- Faced with the decision of what program I wanted to pursue in University, I applied to Design and to Animation. After the applications, portfolios, and interviews, I felt I could be equally happy doing a career in either and therefore had no idea which I would take. Animation called me first and that was good enough for me. Now I'm making more money than my mother, with full benefits and flex hours, creating cellphone games (and this is also my 2nd job in the field, after switching to a rival company for the same pay but better working environment).

2- My love for hockey has always been there, but my desire to play was always roadblocked. Since I'm moving out, I decided what better way than to start skating and playing. Even though I'm short, I've always played goalie. After buying some used skates, the parents still complained about my new choice of sport to the point where I was thinking it was really futile. Next week I got a phone call saying I won a goalie stick. The day after, I cracked open a fortune cookie saying "Get your mind set... Confidence will lead you on." Good enough for me!

3- At lunch I was planning on getting my usual spicy udon soup from Momoyama, except while walking to the store I felt hungrier than usual and decided I'd get the fried pork instead. When I placed my order, the lady said they had no more rice. Spicy udon soup for me!

If Bob Gainey is the NHL's wise Confucius, able to take a long walk with Kovy and chat about things which leads him to holding an awesome year last season, then Mats should listen and make his choice already: Play or Retire.

Yes, sorry, I'm really bored. Two more weeks until I see my first live game at the Phone Booth! And rookie camps is in...4 days!

Lesson in Futility? Part 3: The First Round Pick

The first number picked by Youppi was 1245. Yes, that's right. Almost ten numbers before mine. I was ushered into the first round with a few other happy Habs fan. And what a day! The traffic was nice, the Metro worked, the weather was...ok (hot, humid, grey...my hair was not happy so I shoved them into braids). So, pessimism aside, I got my two tickets in the Victory Pack which will be split between myself and a family member (mostly my younger brother Ben, who's birthday falls on the home opener). This will also be the first time I have ever seen the Habs live. I mean the last time I went to a game was an Old Timers, and that was at the Forum! I felt so lucky I went and bought a 649 lotto ticket! Let's go 04-19-20-26-29-42! I even high-fived Youppi I was so happy. So if the Habs win a game while I'm there I get a free ticket of their choice. The pack itself included two pre-season games (Senators and Panthers) and three regular ones (home opener with the Pooh Bears, and then the Islanders and Sabres). The last ticket is the day after I get my condo too so I might have to miss the Bulldogs game.

Soon I will be able to present a "View from the Greys", which I assume will be a lovely sight of the 24 Stanley Cup banners and retired numbers. Section 316 here I come!

Lesson in Futility? Part 2: Fuck you, Metro

Murphy's Law states that things move slower when you want to get somewhere on time, right? That's the way the Montreal Metro rolls. I managed to hop on the metro at 7am after the train on the opposite track sat there for a good 5 long minutes. Of course, the service had apparently slowed on the Orange Line. Bottom line, public transportation sucks. Technically, I hate when I needed to depend on someone else to get somewhere... Unfortunately, there's no other way for me to get to work.

Despite being thwarted by the STCUM (as usual), I did manage to enter work at 7:30 and made up for the lost time by "working" over lunch. (I put that in quotes because there's nothing to do right now, since we're pretty much finished the project). So I did get to the Bell Center at 4. And wow, people love sitting out in the hot hot sun all day. Thank god there was a strong wind around the corner. Never the less, I'm bracelet number 1256 out of 1500. Mission accomplished.

Will N31 get a good place in the lottery to get those tickets she's hoping for? Or will this debacle end in tears? Stay tuned...

Lesson in Futility? Part 1: Flex Time

Flex time is a wonderful perk. It's what allows me to (attempt to) wake up a quarter to 6, bypass all traffic, hopefully sail smoothly through the metro (minus suicides and fires), enter work at 7ish, and then leave at 4ish (especially if I work through lunch). Yes, this is my plan to park myself in line at the Phone Booth and hope I'm one of 1500 people who will receive the numbered bracelet so I can (hopefully) return Saturday morning with the intent on purchasing two package tickets.

This is all very hypothetical since a) the bracelet doesn't guarantee anything and b) Habs tickets have been sold out until the end of time itself BUT there may be a chance and I figured what the hey, let's try it. Ben's birthday is October 15th, the home opener. So let's see how this turns out. Stay tuned!